You can always count on a Black-capped Chickadee

Thank heavens for Chickadees!! They are there to greet us, no matter what! Such tough little guys, though they are always only 24 hours away from death if they can't get enough fat stored in their body to last overnight. This was a shot taken while waiting in a local park to see if the Long-tailed Weasel would appear, on 17 November 2014. I called in again very briefly yesterday afternoon, 29 November 2014, but no sign of the Weasel. I had just picked up my vehicle with its new set of winter tires, the first ones I have ever had, and as the car place was just down the road from the park, I thought it would be a good idea to see how my car felt with different tires on, before driving home on the main roads.

When I got home, I was reading the info report from the garage. Apparently, all four All-Season tires have multiple sidewall bulges and are no longer safe for use - cannot be remounted in the spring. I only bought them in either March or June 2012, so they are roughly two and a half years old, that's all! I should add that the tire place I went to for my set of new winter tires came highly recommended by staff and volunteers at the place I volunteer. Excellent reviews on-line, too.

It's -22C (windchill -28C) this morning, so hopefully every single little Chickadee finds enough seeds under the new snow that fell the last couple of days.

"The Black-capped Chickadee is notable for its capacity to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights, its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans (they can feed from the hand)." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-capped_Chickadee

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black-capped_chickadee/id